I formed my icicle batons into something closer to a javelin and started throwing. Most of the ones who didn’t duck for cover were still disorientated, I dropped sixteen more before I had to create another wall.
“You’re outnumbered with nowhere to go. You’re never getting out of this forest alive. Is that girl really worth it to you?” It was the same voice that called for the devices to be moved.
“That girl?” My blood chilled, voice cold.That girl, the disrespect he was throwing around was unacceptable. “That woman is my fucking wife and you’ve just made a huge mistake.”
I coiled ice around his ankle like a living vine and pulled him out of his hiding spot, dangling him in the air. I wrapped more ice vines around his body and throat, squeezing just enough to make him really uncomfortable while I dealt with the rest of them.
I lifted the snow on the forest floor, angling it so everyone hiding was in my view. Then I ended it, turning the remaining thirteen into icicle mummies. Unfortunately, the five I’d wanted to keep for questioning had been shot by their own people while I was distracted with the ice wall.
Luckily, Big Mouth was only lightly strangled.
“Why are you here?” I asked, walking over to where he hung from the closest tree. “Who do you work for?”
“Fuck you,” he spit at me.
I tsked, severing the hanging ice.
“Try again.” I crouched in front of him. “Why are you here? Who do you work for?”
He groaned. He landed pretty hard on his shoulder, it was probably dislocated. “Fuck you,” he said again.
“Wrong fucking answer.”
I pressed my finger to his temple and he screamed. This was my favourite way to get answers out of someone. Super intense brain freeze.
“Why are you here and who do you fucking work for?”
“The girl!” he yelled. “For the girl! He wants her!”
“Who wants her?” I put a little more cold into it.
“I don’t know! Please stop!” he cried. “I don’t know! They call him the benefactor. I’ve never met him. Please!”
My heart hammered in my chest. No, no, no. It couldn’t be.
I barely checked to make sure I’d made him the last frozen mummy before I was running back to the cottage. The second I was back on the property I felt my powers slip away again.Fuck, fuck, fuck!
Violet, baby, are you there?I threw down the bridge.
Yes, they haven’t found me.Her answer came right away. Good to know the bond still worked even if my powers didn’t.
I took them all with me, there were only sixty guys.
No. More showed up after they started chasing you.
How many?
I don’t know, at least a dozen. I can hear them moving around the house. Where are you? Are you okay?
I’m coming. Five minutes.
I waited for her response but it didn’t come.
Panic tore through me and it took a second to realize it wasn’t mine.
Violet! Baby, what’s happening?Still nothing.Baby, please talk to me. What the hell is happening?
I picked up my pace, tearing through the forest as fast as I could. I was still two minutes away when she spoke again. Even in my head it sounded faint, pained. And it nearly stopped my heart.
